Mumbai top college admission cutoffs down 6%

First-year junior college (FYJC) cut-offs in top Mumbai colleges dropped by up to 6% in the fyjc first merit list mumbai for 2017-18 partly because of the new admission rules which prevent quota students from booking seats in the general category, long with fewer high scorers in Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams.

It was a nightmare scene at colleges on Tuesday as the fyjc first merit list 2017, which was to be out on Monday at 5pm, was released at 1am, but the junior colleges view it only after 11am. The delays were caused because of the new agency, Nysa Asia, handling this type of admissions for the first time.

Commerce stream saw the maximum drop in cutoffs, which had the highest number of allotments (92,083 students). Cut-offs  at one of the most reputed commerce college Narsee Monjee College, Vile Parle fell to 91.83% from 94.5% previous year. Cut off also dropped in HR College, Churchgate, where admissions closed at 91.4%, lower than last year’s 93.4%.

Principals say that this is due to the new rule in which students taking admission to quota seats are excluded from the general category lists. Parag Ajagaonkar, principal, NM College said, “Quota students could apply for general seats, too last year, which increased the cut-offs”.

Science stream cut-offs also fell even in reputed Science colleges in Mumbai. The cut-off dropped down to 84.6%, lower than last year’s 90.4% at Jai Hind College, Churchgate. Commerce cut off fell to 89.4 % from 91.8% and Arts cut off dipped to 89.8% from 91.4% last year. The science cut-off was the lowest in two years at 89.8% at St Xavier’s Fort ( it was 91.4% last year and 91.8% in 2015). But arts cut-off saw a marginal decline to 94% from 94.4% last year.

Cut-offs dropped by 3% to 4% across all streams at Mithibai College, Vile Parle. Science Cut-off at Mithibai College fell to 85.17% from 89.20%, commerce cut off was down to 87.6% from 91.6%, and arts cut off closed at 83.8%, much lower than 87.33% the last year.

Ashok Wadia, principal of the college said, “We are surprised that the cut-off dropped by so many points even though there was a surge”. Principals were expecting various college cut-offs to soar after students were given 15 to 25 extra marks for cultural and sport activities in the SSC exams.

Vidyadhar Joshi, vice-principal, VG Vaze Kelkar, Mulund, blamed it on few students scoring in 90s in the SSC exams. The number of students scoring between 90 to 95% in SSC dropped to 10,991 from 12,523, while 2,584 students scored above 95%. Students scoring more than 90% were less this year.

Few of the junior colleges that are attached to schools saw higher cut-offs. Science cut-off at Thakur Vidya Mandir, Kandivli, increased to 93.16%, from 89%-90% last year.